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Ahead of the 11th of November governorship election in Imo State, the candidate of Labour Party for the poll, Athan Achonu has said that he should collect at least $20 million if he is to sell out to the Governor, Hope Uzodinma.
Achonu also called on the media to begin to probe into allegations made by politicians, asserting that, ‘If I’m a journalist and they say somebody is a placeholder for the governor, it is my job to investigate the veracity of that claim.’
‘Honestly, I will expect a Labour Governorship Candidate who wins the primary of his party to at least collect twenty million dollars to sell out to Hope Uzodinma, not one million dollars. It’s an insult.
‘I expect that Hope Uzodinma will offer that candidate at least Twenty million dollars to step down for him because the man has almost won the election, without campaigning. Because even in the last election, where did you see the candidate they won in the actual voting?” he explained.
Senator Achonu also disclosed that if elected, his administration would ‘secure Imo for Imolites,’ as he stressed that ‘The first thing I’m going to do, I’ve been championing autonomy of local governments since Obasanjo left the stage today, I’ve funded it, I’ve sponsored it.
Ahead of the November governorship election in Imo State, the Labour Party candidate for the poll, Athan Achonu has said that he should collect at least $20 million if he is to sell out to the Governor, Hope Uzodinma.
Read Also: Achonu Under Pressure To Make Way For Uzodinma
‘After being inaugurated, I will inaugurate a caretaker. The caretaker is not known to the constitution, but just for six months to enable me, because I’m trying to set up an electoral umpire now for that purpose.
So I’m already working on it. So they will work for six months. We’ll have the freest and fairest election in black Africa. Happening in Imo State.
‘So we need to lead by example. So we’ll do that. Why am I insistent on local government autonomy?
‘I’ve been saying that if you Google me, so many interviews I’ve granted, go to YouTube, see a lot of them. I’ve always believed that it was since they hijacked the local government system that criminality came in.
‘You know the local governments used to patronize these local warlords. These men, the big men in the villages, the local governments, strong men, they used to be contractors.
“They used to build drainages. They used to grade roads and make money. But the moment governors started to pocket Local government money, all hell broke loose.
‘If you have a councilor elected by the people because for the people to elect you, to lead them as a councilor, they believe in you, that you have the integrity to protect their interests.
‘There is no way you will be an elected councilor and a criminal comes into that immediate environment and you will not notice. You will not be brought to your notice.’
That’s why if you look at some of my billboards, I was advocating vigilante for communities and local governments.
‘So, immediately, the first bill I’m going to send to the House of Assembly is to set up a vigilante, every local government has its own vigilante.
Because of one naira of their money, the state government will not know how it is spent. Even though we’ll be looking at it, because we have to oversee capabilities through the House of Assembly.’
While accusing the state governor of his alleged undemocratic acts, the Labour candidate added, ‘He has never really won any election. If you investigate properly, you see that he has never really won any election, as he insisted on defeating the Governor in his local government.
‘So I’m gonna work in partnership with all the arms of the government, based on mutual respect.
‘I was advocating in the plan that we have that in every local government area we have this vigilante. They have a DPO, the police.
‘You have a civil defense. You have DSS. Every local government has this structure already. So to provide security in the first place.
‘Now, I’m going to, within the first year, we have gas obligations from the gas companies working in Imo State. Now they’ve just signed into law the fact that state governments can produce their own powe
‘So we’re going to go into partnership with power companies to give them the enabling environment.
‘They’ll come and give us power 24/7 in Imo State. Because without power, you can’t do anything. We have mapped out six industrial layouts, two per geopolitical zone.
‘Charity, they say starts at home. So already my home is an industrial, agricultural processing zone. Oh, yes, I’ll use my personal resources. So I’m gonna enlarge it with government resources.
‘So other people can come and invest. Some people can come and produce tomatoes, canning, and processing fish. I have a cattle stockade that can accommodate 5,000 cattle.
‘I’m now breeding ehi Igbo (Igbo native cow) because it was going extinct. So right now I have 53. It’s growing. I’m buying more and more. So now my focus actually is job creation, and industrialization. That’s why I’m focusing on power.’
Continuing, he assured of setting up a refinery to create an economy of scale for the state.
